Community Work Research Articles

Analysis of Income Level and Shifts in Community Work Types during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Kanonang Satu and Kanonang Dua Villages

This study seeks to provide an overview of income levels and shifts in the type of community work during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kanonang Satu and Kanonang Dua Villages. The results showed that: (1) The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the economic life patterns of the people of Kanonang Satu and Kanonang Dua including income received, expenses for daily living, employment, and spending habits dominated by buying groceries for daily life, (2) The impact of this pandemic is not only felt by those who live in urban areas but also those who live in rural areas such as in Kanonang Satu and Kanonang Dua.

SOCIAL AND PEDAGOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES WORK IN COMMUNITIES

and social work. She investigates the role and significance of the use of technologies in socio-pedagogical practice, as well as their impact on the quality of personality of social work clients.The article also highlights important aspects of professional training of future social workers to use technologies in their work, as well as challenges and opportunities created due to their implementation. That is why the article is relevant for social workers in the community, students and researchers who are interested in the issues of the modern socio-pedagogical sphere.This article is devoted to the role and importance of social work in communities in modern society. It examines the main aspects of social work aimed at improving the quality of life and well-being of various social groups, including the vulnerable and the needy.The article analyzes the roles and functions of social workers in communities, their methods and tools, as well as the importance of cooperation with other services and organizations to achieve successful results. It also emphasizes ethical aspects and principles that guide social work in communities.This article is a useful source of information for social work professionals, students, researchers, and anyone interested in community social work and its importance for sustainable societal development. It was established that the main method of social work is work in the community. An important feature of social work in the community is the spontaneous combination of ordinary citizens as a moral obligation and the desire to do good work with the professional activity of social workers. All this is an important experience for social workers working in the community.
 Keywords: technologies; socio-pedagogical technologies; social worker; volunteering; community; counseling; training; social animation; disability; monitoring.

Effects of simulation in improving the self-confidence of student nurses in clinical practice: a systematic review

BackgroundConsidering the positive influence of simulation from previous literature may encourage educators to regard it as a valuable teaching strategy in nursing schools. This literature review aims to investigate whether the use of simulation improves undergraduate nurses’ self-confidence during clinical practice.MethodologyThis study employed a literature-based design. Five academic databases, including CINAHL, EBSCO, ProQuest, PubMed and Medline, were utilised to extract relevant studies using appropriate keywords and Boolean operators. Studies published in the last 15 years (2005–2020) were included in the search. Studies were retrieved using the Exclusion and Inclusion criteria. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) was used to critically appraise the studies.ResultsA total of 15 primary research studies were extracted for review. Four major themes emerged from the review: Improved self-confidence to carry out clinical tasks, Increased ability to work in teams, Improved self-confidence to perform community work and Improved self-confidence in communicating with patients and team members.ConclusionClinical simulation is a useful tool in increasing the self-confidence of nursing students to perform clinical tasks, make clinical judgements, communicate with patients and team members and improve their teamwork. To improve the quality of care received by patients, it is recommended that clinical simulations be integrated into the nursing curriculum in Saudi Arabia. Increasing the confidence of students has been shown to be associated with greater confidence in performing clinical tasks.

Community development and health promotion in contemporary policy: results from an action-research project in bologna (Italy)

Abstract Bologna, Italy, with its history of good governance, progressive welfare policies, community work, and participation has engendered powerful discourses informing policy and institutional innovation. Yet, a recent city-wide mixed-method action-research (AR) project, designed to document and tackle health inequalities, showed a significant North–South divide for a range of health indicators and an unequal distribution of social determinants of health across the most socio-economically deprived city areas. The AR project also examined the potential of the city’s initiatives for community development and health promotion in addressing health inequalities. In this paper, we focus on a recent institutional innovation called ‘Uffici reti e lavoro di comunità’ (Network and community work units, NCWUs), established by the Bologna municipality in 2016 to promote the decentralization of powers, strengthen community networks, and foster the engagement of citizen organizations in taking care of the material and social living environment. The results of the AR project indicate that the NCWUs, whilst not designed as a policy initiative to reduce (health) inequalities, have a potential to do so by supporting more effective community action to address the determinants driving those inequalities. Through a critical re-thinking of the concepts of power and participation, they also suggest promising directions to overcome some of the limitations of community development approaches in contributing towards greater well-being and equity for people and communities, underlining local learning which could be applied across different geographies nationally and internationally.

The effectiveness of the scientist: How to turn science into a report and a competition for resources

The article shows various aspects of the application in the practice of labor relations of a teacher (scientist) and an educational (scientific) institution of such a tool for regulating activities as an effective contract. It is shown that an effective contract is a way to reduce the income of a teacher (scientist) by increasing the amount of time needed to fulfill all the conditions of the contract. It is also shown that an effective contract is a way to reduce the quality of the educational and research process, which ceases to be evaluated by the quality of its results and in the course of the work of the expert community, and acquires the character of a pursuit of achieving quantitative indicators recorded by formal information systems, such as various databases indexing publishing activity.

Critical Assessment of pH-Dependent Lipophilicity Profiles of Small Molecules: Which One Should We Use and In Which Cases?

Lipophilicity is a physicochemical property with wide relevance in drug design, computational biology, and food, environmental and medicinal chemistry. Lipophilicity is commonly expressed as thepartition coefficientfor neutral molecules, whereas for molecules with ionizable groups, the distribution coefficient (D) at a given pH is used. The logDpH is usually predicted using a pH correction, while often ignoring the apparent ionic partition [[EQUATION]]. In this work, we studied the impact of [[EQUATION]] on the prediction of both the experimental lipophilicity of small molecules and experimental lipophilicity-based applications and metrics such as lipophilic efficiency (LipE), distribution of spiked drugs in milk products, and pH-dependent partition of water contaminants in synthetic passive samples such as silicones. Our findings show that better predictions are obtained by considering the apparent ionic partition.In this context, we developed machine learning algorithms to determine the cases that [[EQUATION]] should be considered. The results indicate that small, rigid, and unsaturated molecules with logPN close to zero, which present a significant proportion of ionic species in the aqueous phase, were better modeled using the apparent ionic partition [[EQUATION]]). Finally, our findings can serve as guidance to the scientific community working in early-stage drug design, food, and environmental chemistry.

Mapping communities as complex adaptive systems: A study of the response to violence against women by communities in Samoa.

This paper explores the concept of communities as complex adaptive systems in the context of violence against women (VAW) prevention. Using thematic network analysis on data from 80 semi-structured interviews with community members in Samoa, we found that communities exhibit many properties of complex adaptive systems. Within nested systems, diverse and dynamic agents interact based on their knowledge and attitudes, which changes over time, leading to emergent and unpredictable outcomes. The functioning of communities and their response to VAW is a product of non-linear and emerging relationships and interactions between systems components at the community level. The approach we propose for conceptualising communities as complex adaptive systems provides a structured method for designing and evaluating community-based interventions that are grounded in the local context and existing resources. With in-depth knowledge of how a community works, interventions can be better equipped to address wicked problems such as VAW.

Improving patient-centered care for HIV and mental illness: exploring hospital and community integration through education

ABSTRACT Current models of care delivery are failing patients with complexity, like those living with HIV, mental illness and other psychosocial challenges. These patients often require resource-intensive personalized care across hospital and community settings, but available supports can be fragmented and challenging to access and navigate. To improve this, the authors created a program to enhance integrated, trauma-informed care through an innovative educational role for a HIV community caseworker embedded in an academic HIV Psychiatry clinic, called the Mental Health Clinical Fellowship. Through qualitative interviews with 21 participants (patients, physicians, clinicians and Mental Health Clinical Fellows) from October 2020–March 2023, the authors explore how implementation of this program affects patient experiences and satisfaction with care. Patients described their care experiences as less stigmatizing, more accessible, holistic and coordinated. They often attributed this to the integration between fellow and psychiatrist, and specifically the accessible stance of community organizations embedded within a hospital, which helped build trust. Interchangeable and integrated support by caseworker and psychiatrist improved patient engagement in psychiatric management and patient satisfaction with their care. Cross-context and cross-disciplinary care provision that includes providers from community and hospital working directly together to deliver care can improve care for patients with significant complexity.

Heritage Mobilisation as Radical Politics in a Left-Wing Social Movement

ABSTRACT Left-wing movements are said to invest mainly in class struggle to address global capitalism and the growing dominance by the far right. Recent left-wing movements, however, increasingly invest in culture. This article explores this investment with a focus on the mobilisation of heritage (historical architecture, cultural traditions, histories, and narratives). Through the case of Dresden’s No-Pegida movement, I show that heritage is an often-unrecognised sphere of mobilising radical politics from the left. Attention to how the left mobilises heritage can indicate that investments in culture occur in intersectional and transversal ways. This article uses examples from a qualitative study of No-Pegida to discuss heritage mobilisation in demonstrations and community work. I show that heritage comes to matter for the left when responding to heritage populism from the far right. The left’s heritage mobilisation can be understood as a refusal of authoritarian populism and an opposition to the far right’s spatial cleansing attempts. It is further an important step for reconfiguring the local creative middle-class through the inclusion of refugee and migrant artists and for centring subaltern philosophies about culture.

Building a multi‐scale, collaborative, and time‐integrated digital crust: The next stage of the Macrostrat data system

AbstractMacrostrat is a platform for deep‐time geoscientific research that integrates stratigraphic columns and geologic maps into a digital description of the crust. The database and supporting software track crustal evolution and provide location‐based geological information to geoscience end users. Macrostrat houses multiple scales of mapping and stratigraphic data, from continent‐ and basin level summaries to single quadrangles and measured sections. Currently, Macrostrat's primary data holdings consist of regional stratigraphic columns with a spatial footprint weighted heavily to North America. While the data are of sufficient scale and resolution to generate insights about Earth evolution, increasing resolution and expanding spatial coverage will allow a new generation of scientific and interpretive uses. The next phase of Macrostrat's development will increase the detail and complexity of Macrostrat's multiscale data holdings, largely by engaging a wider range of geoscientists in entering stratigraphic data. To support broad collaboration, we are building new web‐based software to assemble and visualize regional stratigraphic sequences, refine multiple working age models, and compose regional records from measured stratigraphic sections. These tools will allow Macrostrat to draw on the expertise of a wide range of geoscience workers and grow a dataset with global relevance and a variety of end uses. New capabilities will pave the way to processes for submission, review, coordination, and assimilation of community‐contributed stratigraphic datasets. Digital compilation of geological maps and columns requires substantial effort, and well‐designed systems for distributing this work in the geoscience community will allow Macrostrat to build more adaptable and scientifically relevant products.

‘Now there’s just a different feel’: spatiotemporal commitments & commercial racialization as markers of rural belonging

ABSTRACT Twenty-first century rural Midwest communities are experiencing demographic shifts and industrialization in ways that challenge assumptions about rural social cohesion. Urban spatial segregation, surveillance of immigrants and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of colour) city dwellers, and community organizing to resist these processes is well represented in social science literature. Rural contexts feature less prominently in such explorations. I draw on ethnographic research in a Midwest community to make visible the racialization of rural spaces and to illustrate how such racialization frames belonging as contingent on assimilation to white investments in rural space. I draw on the examples of homeownership, commercial space, and public gathering spaces to illustrate the prevalence of white, Euro-American spatiotemporal commitments at work in rural communities as well as how this hegemonic framework can be challenged. By laying bare the social processes enacted through the geographies of everyday life, I hope to point towards more capacious and inclusive possibilities of rural belonging.

RLabs Youth Cafés and the Zlto Exchange system

ABSTRACT This article presents a study of a youth café initiative for skills training in South Africa where a reward system with community currency (the ZE system) is implemented on smartphones to promote personal development and prepare youth for the job market in socially challenged communities. The youth receive currency in exchange for taking part in skills training and community work that can be spent on services and consumables in the local community. This study assesses the qualitative performance of the ZE system and youth café operation, through an inductive qualitative analysis of interviews with youth café visitors and staff. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a lens, the analysis focuses on how the youth café operation supports motivation for personal development. Results indicate that the youth cafés provide a platform for developing self-determination and promoting personal development. However, this is not a result from the ZE system alone, but rather from how it is embedded in the supportive environment of the youth cafés, as well as the integration of the youth café operation in the local communities. In conclusion, the youth café operation, with its digital reward system, may be viewed as an example of an empowering socio-technology for development.

A multisite cross-sectional study of intercultural competencies in doctor of physical therapy students

BackgroundPhysical therapists (PTs) work in diverse communities with individuals whose identities and beliefs may differ significantly from their own. Academic institutions must include intentional curriculum aimed at graduating PTs who can skillfully navigate intercultural encounters. Being prepared to engage with difference and demonstrate skills related to intercultural competencies (ICC) will prepare entry-level PTs to provide individualized, high-quality care. Intercultural competencies are essential skills that can reduce healthcare disparities, and promote equitable and inclusive healthcare delivery. This study examined the impact of PT curricula, student demographics, and participation in intercultural learning experiences (ILEs) on students’ development of ICC.MethodsA cross-sectional study of 8 Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) programs in the United States (US) compared ICC in first-year (F) and third-year students (T), and T who participated in an ILE (T + ILE) to those who did not (T-only). Subjects included 1,038 students. Outcome measures included The Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence-among healthcare professionals-Student Version© (IAPCC-SV), and a demographic survey.ResultsIndependent t-tests showed that group T (mean = 64.34 ± 5.95, 95% CI: 63.78-64.90) had significantly higher IAPCC-SV total scores than group F (mean = 60.8 ± 5.54, 95% CI = 60.33-61.27, p < 0.05). Group T + ILE (mean = 65.81 ± 5.71, 95% CI = 64.91-66.71) demonstrated significantly higher IAPCC-SV total scores than group T-only (mean = 63.35 ± 5.8, 95% CI = 62.6-64.1, p = 0.039). A one-way ANOVA and post hoc comparisons showed that the 25 to 34-year age group (mean = 63.80 ± 6.04, 95% CI = 63.25-64.35, p < 0.001) and the ≥ 35-year age group (mean = 64.21 ± 5.88, 95% CI = 62.20-66.22, p < .024) had significantly higher IAPCC-SV total scores, than the 18 to 24-year age group (mean = 60.60 ± 5.41, 95% CI = 60.09-61.11). Students who identified in US census minority ethnic or racial categories (US-Mn) (mean = 63.55 ± 5.78, 95% CI = 62.75-64.35) had significantly higher IAPCC-SV total scores than students who identified in US majority ethnic or racial categories (US-Mj) (mean = 61.98 ± 5.97, 95% CI = 61.55-62.413, p = .0001).ConclusionsResults of the study support the hypothesis that DPT programs can promote the development of intercultural skills in students. The ultimate objective of this academic preparation is to improve the student’s ability to deliver equitable, person-centered healthcare upon entry into practice. Specific ICC for entry-level DPT students are not clearly defined by US physical therapy professional organizations, academic institutions, or accrediting body. Students who participated in an ILE exhibited higher levels of ICC when compared to those who did not. Findings from this study can guide curriculum development, utilization of resources, and outcomes assessment. More research is needed to examine characteristics of an ILE that could inform best practice.

“Our community needs to heal”: Using Photovoice to Explore Intergenerational Memories of Civil War with Young Central Americans in Toronto

In 2020, our research collective facilitated a photovoice project titled “Picturing Our Realities: Arts-based Reflections with Central American Youth in Canada,” which brought together young, second-generation, and one-and-a-half-generation (born in another country and moved at a young age) Central American identifying people in Toronto to talk about their experiences growing up as children of immigrants. This photovoice project reveals the ways the civil war and migration process is a haunting presence in the lives of second and 1.5 generation Central American Canadians as they grow up and carve their paths as adults. We can see how unresolved social conflict emerges and shapes family memory, sense of self, understandings of community, and means of engaging in community activism and community work. We argue that this act of remembering and paying homage to previous generations is a means of confronting and resisting past injustices and forming ways of healing from the afterlives of violence. This recognition of the afterlives of mass violence, and the calls of action that this recognition entails, may form a powerful catalyst for community organizing and creating community spaces to respond to historical hauntings and structural violence.

The National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) 2018 Membership Profile

In 2018 a questionnaire was administered to the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) membership to better understand the composition of its members. The purpose of this survey was to both assist NMEA leadership in engaging in data-driven decision-making when creating programs and serve as a foundation upon which to base and reflect on diversity initiatives. A 2002 membership survey allowed us to gauge changes in some demographic metrics over time. The 2018 survey had a response rate of 61% (N = 385). Members predominantly identified as white (82%) and female (70%). They were highly educated (70% held a masters’ or doctorate degree) and coastally based (67% lived within 25 miles of the ocean). Since 2002 there has been an increase in the percentage of members identifying as female (60 to 70%) and those indicating they were older than 61 (~10 to 25%). Over this same period members identifying as white decreased (97 to 82%) and the percentage of formal educators in the organization decreased (46 to 33%). Results from the 2018 survey provided additional insight into members’ educational training, geographic distribution, organization engagement, and familiarity with the Ocean Literacy Principles. These results can contribute to improved NMEA programming and serve as a benchmark upon which to reflect on changes to the organization’s composition over time. We think findings will help all marine educators, regardless of NMEA membership, situate their work in the broader marine education community and may inform other non-profit volunteer organizations how to conduct surveys to better understand their own membership.

Practitioner Inquiry for Turbulent Times: Learning to Take an Inquiry Stance Toward Teaching Difficult Topics Through a Teacher Inquiry Community

Amid turbulent times and politically polarized communities, many teachers require support if they are to teach or engage with difficult topics in their curricula or professional practices, yet few teachers actually receive any formalized support for addressing such topics. This article responds by describing the work of an inquiry community of inservice educators that was designed to assist teachers in learning to address difficult topics by integrating practitioner inquiry and student inquiry with asset-based and trauma-informed lenses. The article outlines the community’s conceptual foundations then describes how a team of university-based teacher educators facilitated the community’s work. A participating teacher’s reflection illustrates how the support of the community transformed her teaching of one potentially difficult topic—the American Civil War—as she shifted her pedagogy from being a provider of knowledge to facilitating students’ inquiries. The article highlights implications for future scholarship about professional learning, student inquiry, and teacher retention.

Improve and innovate community mechanisms combined with western medicine to treat bipolar depression

BackgroundBipolar depression is increasingly affecting people’s quality of life. There are mainly medication and psychotherapy for treatment, but there also exist psychological and social environmental factors that affect the symptoms. This study will use a combination of Western medicine and medication to improve and innovate community work mechanisms, and provide group integrated psychotherapy for patients.Subjects and Methods100 patients diagnosed with depression from a specific hospital underwent psychological evaluation, and were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, with 50 patients in each group. The experimental group received a combination of Western medicine and group integrated psychotherapy, complemented by community work mechanisms. The control group received only a combination of Western medicine and group cognitive behavior therapy. The experimental data was analyzed using SPSS23.0 statistical software, which included descriptive statistical analysis.ResultsThe results showed that the total scores of the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) in the two groups were significantly lower than before treatment. After SPSS analysis, the difference in results was F=102.48, P=0.001, F=55.96, P&lt;0.001, with statistical significance. After 4 and 8 weeks of treatment, the difference in results between the two groups of HAMD was t=3.49, P=0.001, t=2.51, P&lt;0.19, with statistical significance.ConclusionsThis study found that group integrated psychotherapy combined with community work mechanisms is significantly superior to group cognitive behavior research, which can improve patients’ treatment enthusiasm and early differences. Group integrated psychotherapy combined with community work mechanisms can effectively enhance patients’ psychological resilience.AcknowledgementThe research is supported by: Jiangsu Province University Philosophy and Social Science General Project (2021) “Study on the Governance Mechanism of Village Leaders in Rural Construction--Based on Suqian Practice” (No. 2021SJA2203).

Improvement of the rural grassroots community work mechanism and its role in alleviating farmers’ psychological anxiety

BackgroundWith the development of modern rural areas, farmers have developed anxiety, which is a reflection of the imperfect grassroots construction in rural areas. By establishing innovative and perfect grassroots systems, psychological anxiety relief is implemented for farmers. This study investigates the role of improving and innovating the working mechanism of rural grassroots communities in alleviating farmers’ psychological anxiety.Subjects and MethodsA total of 60 farmers from a certain village were selected and randomly divided into an intervention group and a control group, with 30 cases in each group. The intervention group received comprehensive psychological intervention and anxiety counseling, while the control group did not receive any treatment. The anxiety self-assessment scale scores were evaluated before and after the intervention. The results were tested using SPSS16.0 statistical software.ResultsBefore intervention, there was no statistically significant difference (P&gt;0.05) between the two groups of subjects in the scores of the Self Rating Anxiety Scale, indicating no statistical significance; The score of the anxiety self-assessment scale in the intervention group decreased significantly before and after intervention (P&lt;0.05), while there was no statistical difference in the score of the anxiety self-assessment scale in the control group before and after intervention (P&gt;0.05).ConclusionsThe improvement and innovation of rural grassroots community work mechanisms have a good development for psychological intervention, which can effectively reduce farmers’ anxiety levels, improve patients’ quality of life, and have a good effect on farmers’ enthusiasm for life and mental health. It is worth further promoting.

Community as a category of empire: ‘The work of community’ among Burmese Indians in Myanmar

ABSTRACT In this article I argue that ‘community' is a category that is inextricably bound up with the historical development of the British empire. It was in this context that modern social theory took root, including, eventually, publications on community in anthropology and sociology that profoundly influenced nineteenth- and twentieth-century thought and that continue to shape everyday understandings of the category within and beyond academia. I first elaborate what type of work the category ‘community' was intended to do in the British empire. I then introduce two key figures who were responsible for designing, distributing and implementing two contrasting imperial theories of community. Subsequently, I sketch the migratory history of the category following the ancestors of today's so-called ‘Burmese Indians' across the Bay of Bengal from India to Burma. The final part of the article presents the repercussions ‘community' has in contemporary Myanmar, drawing on recent legislation around ‘race and religion’ as well as my own ethnographic data from religious processions of ethno-religious minorities who find themselves in a subaltern position vis-à-vis the Buddhist majority population and an ethnonationalist state.

Persepsi Masyarakat Terhadap Buruh Tani Perempuan Di Desa Wuwuk Kecamatan Tareran Kabupaten Minahasa Selatan

This study aims to describe people's perceptions of female farm laborers in Wuwuk Village, Tareran District, South Minahasa Regency. The research was conducted from May to July 2023. The data used in this study were primary data and secondary data. Primary data was obtained from direct interviews with 25 respondents who are the general public of Wuwuk Village. Secondary data obtained from literature studies, libraries, and journals. The sampling technique in this study is purposive sampling technique. The data analysis method used is descriptive analysis. The results of the study show that the people of Wuwuk Village on average agree with women's work as farm laborers because according to the community work as farm laborers is work that not only men but also women can do. The Wuwuk Village community considers that the women farm workers in Wuwuk Village are tough women whose energy and performance are not inferior to men, and there are even women whose energy and performance are better than men. However, there are also people who disagree with women's work as farm laborers because according to the community work as farm laborers is not suitable for women, they argue that women should focus on household activities.